Leopoldo Trieste

Garnering an impressive 160 film credits over the course of his enduring career, actor/writer Leopoldo Trieste worked with such noted directors as Federico Fellini (The White Sheik [1952]) and Roberto Rossellini (The Young and the Passionate [1952]) before coming to the attention of the international film community with such efforts as Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974) and Jean-Jacques Annaud's The Name of the Rose (1986). Born in Reggio Calabria, Italy, in 1917, Trieste began his career as a stage performer. Co-writing (as well as acting in) his first film following World War II, Love Prelude, proved a moderate success, though it wasn't until Fellini cast him in The White Sheik that his career truly took off. Subsequently scripting films and gaining a reputation as a respected playwright, Trieste continued to alternate between stage and screen in the following years, even attempting a stint at directing 1950's Città di Notte (City at Night) and 1960's Il Peccato Degli Anni Verdi. Though both films proved disappointing failures, Trieste pushed on and continued to find success in front of the camera. The veteran actor was the recipient of a Nastro d'Argento award for his role in The Star Maker (1995). In January of 2003, Leopoldo Trieste died of cardiac arrest in Rome, Italy. He was 85.